A KOGUE BULL. 31 



crossing any of the ridges was to produce a like result. 

 We knew the great weight and strength of buffaloes would 

 render the broken ground more favourable to them than 

 it would be to our horses. We had never tried our steeds 

 against such animals. We were most anxious to get as 

 near to them as possible, so that when the chase began they 

 would have but little start of us. Therefore, whenever the 

 crossing . of an eminence was unavoidable, one of us re- 

 mained in the hollow holding the horses, and the other 

 reconnoitred. As the scout approached a summit, he first 

 crawled on his hands and knees, then, snaked along on his 

 chest, and when he arrived there, peeped cautiously through 

 some tuft of grass, to survey the route, note the position 

 of the buffaloes in sight and lay out the further line of 

 progress. 



The buffaloes being continually on the move, we had to 

 make many long detours, and a couple of hours were soon 

 spent in stalking. At last, patience being exhausted, and 

 the game being pronounced as near as we were likely 

 to get to them unperceived, we made final preparations, 

 and dashed over the intervening ridge. 



To our disgust, something had alarmed the buffaloes, 

 and all of them that had been near us were in rapid 

 retreat. We reined in with expressions of chagrin. As 

 we did so, a huge old bull came lumbering round a corner 

 to our left, scarcely two hudred yards off. Evidently he was 

 a " rogue " : that is to say, a cantankerous old patriarch 

 buffalo, who, for his sins, had been turned out of his herd 

 by younger and more active rivals, and thereafter had to 

 hang sulkily on its flanks, or in its rear. A rogue bull is 



